Genome-wide association studies, which try to find correlations between particular genetic variations and disease diagnoses, are a staple of modern medical research.
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A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has reported that repeated treatment with pulsed electric fields - a noninvasive procedure that does not generate heat - may help reduce the development of scarring. In the Journal of Investigative Dermatology the investigators from the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine (MGH-CEM) and collaborators describe how use of the technology - called partial irreversible electroporation - reduced scarring after burn injuries in an animal model and improved several skin properties by removal of excess skin cells.
WASHINGTON - U.S. adults perform comparably to adults in other economically developed countries on most measures of science knowledge and support science in general, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. However, attitudes toward some specific issues, such as climate change or genetic engineering, may be shaped by factors such as values and beliefs rather than knowledge of the science alone.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have sequenced mitochondrial DNA from museum specimens of rare species of deer. Analysis of partial nucleotide sequences has enabled the team to refine our picture of the evolutionary history of cervids.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Proteins are long strings of amino acids jumbled together like earphones left inside of a pocket for too long. But while a protein's mess of intertwined knots may look haphazard, their specific folds are extremely important to their biological functions. Misfolded proteins are thought to be the genesis of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and cystic fibrosis, just to name a few.
Normally, individual molecules of genetic material repel each other. However, when space is limited DNA molecules must be packed together more tightly. This case arises in sperm, cell nuclei and the protein shells of viruses. An international team of physicists has now succeeded in artificially recreating this so-called DNA condensation on a biochip.
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 9, 2016 -- The Gulf of Maine coastline, historically home to one of the richest shellfish populations in the U.S., is undergoing a dramatic change, with once-flourishing wild blue mussels all but disappearing, according to a study led by University of California, Irvine ecologists.
Two Oxford University scientists have proposed a solution to a puzzle of the human immune system: how our immune system scales its response in proportion to any threat to our health to make it 'just right'. Their ideas, published in the journal Trends in Immunology, could support a range of medical research.
Research from a University of North Texas historian supports the idea that the nation and region of origin of your ancestors contributes to your risk of developing, or not developing, a growing list of medical conditions.
A mother's high-fat diet during pregnancy could have a lasting impact on the bacteria living in her baby's gut, according to a study published in the open access journal Genome Medicine. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in the US examined a cohort of 157 women and their newborn babies, and found an association between the mothers' diets and distinct changes in their offspring's microbiome, which could affect energy extraction from food and early immune development.
HOUSTON - (Aug. 8, 2016) - The community of microbes - the microbiome - living in a baby's gut can be influenced by the mother's diet during pregnancy. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that babies born to mothers who consumed a high-fat diet during pregnancy had a gut microbiome that was distinctly different from the one in babies of mothers on a non-high-fat diet. This is important because the microbiome can affect the development of babies' immune system and their ability to extract energy from food. The study appears in Genome Medicine.
A study led by researchers at The University of Nottingham has discovered that the fertility of dogs may have suffered a sharp decline over the past three decades.
The research, published in the academic journal Scientific Reports, found that sperm quality in a population of stud dogs studied over a 26-year period had fallen significantly.
Many breast tumors grow in response to female hormones, especially estrogen. Drugs that reduce estrogen levels in the body often are effective in reducing tumor size and preventing recurrence of the cancer. But some tumors become resistant to these therapies and continue to grow and spread.
The transient form of genetic information, the RNA, is processed in a similar manner in the cells of both organisms. These mechanisms seem to be at work throughout the whole animal kingdom. Scientists from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and their international partners showed this in a genome-wide study on flatworms whose results have now been published in the scientific journal eLife.
A molecular switch that flips between different versions of genes could be crucial for maintaining stem cells across all animals from simple flatworms to humans, according to a study from scientists at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, that will be published on August 9, 2016, in the journal eLife.